Greece

The Constitution of Greece

The current Constitution of Greece, the supreme law of Greece was adopted in 1975. Since its adoption, the Constitution has been revised three times: in 1986, 2001 and 2008.

The Constitution guarantees a significant number of individual and social rights. It establishes the form of the Government as a presidential parliamentary democracy and specifies the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The legislative power is exercised by the Parliament and the President of the Republic, who is the head of State. The Parliament enacts the laws, which are issued and promulgated by the President . The executive power is vested in the President and the Government, which comprises the Prime Minister and Ministers. However, the President has restrained responsibilities.
The judicial power is exercised by three categories of courts with civil, criminal and administrative jurisdiction. The Greek legal system is based on Roman law and is especially influenced by German and French law.

The Constitution contains general provisions concerning the protection of intellectual property rights: the protection of personal data (Article 9a), the State administration of radio, film, and television as well as works of literature and art (Article 15), and the obligation of the state to support artistic creativity (Article 16), and protect cultural heritage including monuments, traditional areas, archaeological and historical sites (Article 24) .
Furthermore, the Constitution also protects private property rights under Article 17.

The information on the Greek legislation is drawn from the Database of Legal Information of the Athens Bar Association, ISOKRATIS.